Impact of ITS-Based Sequencing on Antifungal Treatment of Patients with Suspected Invasive Fungal Infections

Molecular techniques including the sequencing of fungal-specific DNA targets are increasingly used in the diagnosis of suspected invasive fungal infections. In contrast to established biomarkers like galactomannan or 1-3-β-d-glucan, the clinical impact of these methods remains unknown. We retrospect...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of fungi (Basel) 2020-06, Vol.6 (2), p.43
Main Authors: Guenter, Sara, Gorkiewicz, Gregor, Halwachs, Bettina, Kashofer, Karl, Thueringer, Andrea, Wurm, Phillip, Zollner-Schwetz, Ines, Valentin, Thomas, Prattes, Juergen, Wunsch, Stefanie, Ullrich, Elisabeth, Zurl, Christoph, Hoenigl, Martin, Krause, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antifungal agents
antifungal therapy
Antigens
Bioinformatics
Biomarkers
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA sequencing
Error correction & detection
Fungal infections
Genetic aspects
Histopathology
invasive fungal infections
ITS-sequencing
Medical research
Mycoses
Patients
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Molecular techniques including the sequencing of fungal-specific DNA targets are increasingly used in the diagnosis of suspected invasive fungal infections. In contrast to established biomarkers like galactomannan or 1-3-β-d-glucan, the clinical impact of these methods remains unknown. We retrospectively investigated the impact of ITS1-sequencing on antifungal treatment strategies in 71 patients (81 samples) with suspected invasive fungal infections. ITS-sequencing either confirmed already ongoing antifungal therapy (19/71 patients, 27%), led to a change in antifungal therapy (11/71, 15%) or supported the decision to withhold antifungal treatment (34/71, 48%) (in seven of 71 patients, ITS-sequencing results were obtained postmortem). ITS-sequencing results led to a change in antifungal therapy in a relevant proportion of patients, while it confirmed therapeutic strategies in the majority. Therefore, ITS-sequencing was a useful adjunct to other fungal diagnostic measures in our cohort.
ISSN:2309-608X
2309-608X
DOI:10.3390/jof6020043